Widespread Bounces Back With 'Ball'

July 11, 2003|By SAM MCDONALD Daily Press

Think of Widespread Panic as the jam band with bounce.

The group's new album "Ball" ricochets from bluesy rock to Latin-inflected grooves, country-flavored rave-ups, even power pop. As always, Widespread Panic mixes up its attack while maintaining its loose, improvisational personality.

"Ball" is more impressive considering the stress under which it was made. It's the group's first record since the death last year of guitarist Michael Houser. The band performs Wednesday at Harbor Center in Portsmouth.

"Spiritually, he's all over this record," keyboardist JoJo Hermann told the Tallahassee Democrat.

"'Travelin' Man' (the album's 16-minute closing track) is one he brought in. It kind of feels good to think about him when we play these songs."

And yet the band is changed. Pain is still evident.

"That's been the first big shock to our system that didn't turn into a funny story later on," singer and guitarist John Bell recently told the Rocky Mountain News. "There's an awareness now that stuff can happen. Big stuff can happen that in one second will mean that nothing's going to be the same from here. If there was a point where we were taking things for granted, that definitely has changed."

By moving forward, Widespread Panic is honoring Houser's wishes. Before he died last August of pancreatic cancer, he insisted that the group continue.

While "Ball," is more than a musical elegy for Houser, it does contain heart-tugging moments. The quiet, acoustic "Longer Look" is a love song that could just as well be sung to a lost friend. "Counting Train Cars" is wistful and bittersweet.

The songs on "Ball" came out of a new working method for the group. Typically, Widespread Panic tests new material on stage before recording it. This time out, the band decided to write songs in the studio.

"It served a lot of purposes," Bell told the Rocky Mountain News. "It was a big surprise to fans because they hadn't heard the material before. We went to the nth degree to make sure nobody was going to get this music -- the record company, the Internet, radio stations, nobody."

The shift helped the band cope with its loss.

"This was really healthy for us. We were more occupied," Bell said. The approach was better than "going into all the old motions and really feeling like he's absent from that."

WANT TO GO?

Widespread Panic performs 8 p.m. Wednesday at Harbor Center, 901 Crawford St., Portsmouth. Advance tickets are $25 plus service charges from Ticketmaster. Day of show, tickets will be $27.50. Lake Trout will perform on the plaza prior to the show. Call 393-8181 for information.

Sam McDonald can be reached at 247-4732 or by e-mail at smcdonald@dailypress.com.